22 new permit shops in two years

The Gujarat government gave licences to sell liquor to 22 new shops at premium hotels in the state in less than two years.

TNN | Mar 2, 2017, 07:42 IST

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GANDHINAGAR: The Gujarat government gave licences to sell liquor to 22 new shops at premium hotels in the state in less than two years.

In a written response to Congress MLA Shaktisinh Gohil's question regarding licenses given to new liquor shops in the state in the past two years, minister of state (home) and prohibition Pradipsinh Jadeja said, "A total of 22 hotels were given permission to open new liquor shops." Gohil further asked whether any shops were found violating rules. Jadeja replied that inspections had been carried out 61 times and only one case of irregularity was detected.

The number of liquor shops has doubled — from 26 to 52 in a little more than two years. A majority of the pending applications for new liquor shops in hotels were cleared, mostly after May 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In January 2014, there were only 26 permitted liquor shops. Their number has now grown to 52.

In Ahmedabad, till April 2014, there were only five liquor shops. Later in the May 2014 to January 2016 period, a total of six new liquor shops were given permission. Most shocking is that two shops have been allowed within almost 500 meters of Mahatma Gandhi's historic Sabarmati Ashram.In Anand, there was only one shop while two more were permitted in May 2015. In Kutch-Bhuj, out of seven shops, four were permitted after March 2014. In the state capital, Gandhinagar, two new shops have been allowed in the past two years. The total in the state capital is now three shops.In Surat also, two news shops have been given licenses recently. In Bhavnagar, Junagadh, and Surendranagar there were no shops with license for liquor. A total of five new shops have got license in these three cities alone in the past two years. In Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bharuch also new licenses were given in the past two years.

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